A video chat with Habs’ Travis Moen

From the video, goalie Carey Price wanders in on Stubbs’s Brossard chat with Travis Moen to claim the keys to his own truck.

Forward Travis Moen arrived back in Montreal on Sept. 8 with his wife, Amy, and their two young children, Carter and Blayke, ready to buy a house and continue training for an NHL season that appears nowhere near its opening faceoff.

The Canadiens camp was supposed to have begun in Brossard on Friday with team medicals, followed by Saturday’s first on-ice session. Not happening, obviously, all pre-season games through Sept. 30 cancelled with more presumably to come unless the NHL and NHLPA resume their talks soon.

I sat with Moen, who in late June signed a four-year, $7.4-million contract, to talk about his new deal, the second lockout of his professional career and much more. Video of most of our conversation is below.

“We’re trying to have a negotiation over that, but in terms of getting your arms around it, under our most recent proposal, players’ share gets reduced in the first year in the 9% range; second year in the 7% range; third year in the 4% range. These are amounts — out of escrow, not a rollback — that are perfectly consistent with what the players have experienced during the seven years of this collective bargaining agreement, when there has been an escrow reduction to their contracts five out of seven times, once for as much as 12% … So, in terms of what it all means, if you’re trying to get your arms around it, even a brief lockout will cost more in terms of lost salary and wages than what we’re proposing to do to make a deal that we think we need to make.”

So he says it is not a rollback, but the owners plan to keep the escrow as a way of immediately reducing the player’s share below 57%.

Ed i think he means the cable network formerly called Versus that has been rebranded as NBC sports something. Not sports on the main network

I don’t agree with the argument he is making. What seems clear -and odd to me- is that the flyers and bruins seem to be among the most militant pro lockout org’s seemingly against their interest as big market profitable media affiliated teams. But it id relevant

I’m bored so I drew up my own new CBA:
-Based on HRR, the 2012-13 Cap is supposed to be 70.2 million
( based on 57% HRR) with a Cap Floor of 54.2 million.
-Set the Cap at 65 million (54% HRR), the Cap Floor will be 49 million, freeze the Cap at 65 million for the next 3 years and keep it there regardless of HRR.
-since GMs have been signing contracts based on the 70.2 million figure, allow teams to use the 70.2 million figure for those 3 years but impose an agreed upon luxury tax on $’s spent between 65 million and 70.2 million during this period of time. This will only affect the Cap limit weathy teams and the players will not have to agree to any rollback.
-Considering the Cap was 39 million in 2005-06, and supposed to be 70.2 million this year based on the expired CBA, inflation alone is going to increase HRR between now and 2014-15 ( unless the lockout drags on resulting in the loss of fans driving revenues down ). The 2 sides agree upon a figure, whether it be 50% upwards to 54% of HRR that the new Cap mean will be calculated with from 2014-15 to the expiry of the new CBA. At this time, even with the decrease in the % of HRR, the Cap most certainly will go up ( i.e player’s salaries)
-good for the players because no rollback, but they have to sacrifice any inflation over the next 3 years.
-good for the owners because they will get a much bigger slice of the pie

The owners solution to the problem of underperforming franchises is to continue to claw back players salaries. It does not address the key issue which is that the cap is based on total league revenues and that certain teams make far more than others.

Under the owners proposal the cap will rise again, the sunbelt teams will be unable to meet the cap floor and we’ll have situations like Phoenix again, and whenever this new CBA is over we’ll have another lockout as the owners say the players are paid too much again.

Under the players proposals, at least there is more revenue sharing which helps avoid the problem franchises becoming problems again.

Thats what this should be about, a long term solution, so we don’t have endless lockouts every 5, 6 or 7 years.

And I would suspect that the reason this wasn’t accepted is the rift it would cause between the haves and have-nots.
I’m convinced that Jeremy Jacobs, Ed Snider and probably James Dolan are front and centre in bucking this proposal.
I’m not sure what Geoff Molson or whatever consortium which is the Leafs’ organization has to say about it.

the problem with revenue sharing , is teams losing money will always at least break even , teams that dont make money in a market should be moved and not aided by the other teams , in revenue sharing Winnipeg would have never got a team back unless it was through expansion , which the leauge has too many teams already

While both sides are partly responsible for the lockout, my view is that the league is being the most unreasonable by demanding an immediate salary rollback. That would be the same as if the NHLPA had demanded a pay raise: you put your opponent in a position in which he must fight to the death rather than accept. In the big picture, the league will get what they need if the player percentage is reduced in the long run. Most teams can make money at 57% as long as they don’t spend to the cap, so the assertion that they need the immediate rollback is ridiculous and everyone knows it. 57% may not be sustainable indefinitely but it would take 4 years max for the league to grow revenues enough to get players down to 50% with a wage freeze.

Last time the lockout could be justified because getting to a cap system was worth it for the league. But this time they are risking the entire business for the sake of a few percent over a short time. Just stupid. They better becareful they don’t kill the golden goose. Baseball has never recovered from the last lockout. It’s not even an Olympic sport any more. With the growth of soccer in NA, hockey better becareful, the consumer only has so much time and money to spend on professional sports. Even for my kids, I may have to chose between soccer and hockey soon because both are becoming a year-round sport and it is almost impossible to do both. It’s more likely to become a fan if you have played a sport so the league should be paying attention to what is happening at the grassroots level instead of bickering over a few pennies (relatively speaking).

I think both sides are to blame for the impasse the CBA negotiations have reached, but as I noted, I’m adamant in my opinion that only one side is responsible for the lockout.

Bettman et al have managed to make it seem like since there is no agreement in place, the lockout is inevitable. But this doesn’t have to be the case. It’s totally normal for CBAs to be negotiated in good faith without a work stoppage (strike or lockout). The owners and Bettman decided to use the lockout as a strategy to make the players cave — they didn’t have to.

You are correct, but if they froze salaries, the cap would eventually come down to 50% as revenues grow. If they had froze the cap at $64M this year instead of growing to $70M, the player percentage would be down to about 52% (using very rough math) already without anyone having to take a paycut.

Withholding escrow is another way of saying pay-cut, which I feel is unnecessary. If the cap is frozen, teams should have no trouble staying under.

I think the League would put the union in a tough spot if they offered to freeze the cap at $70M/team for 4 years, or until $70M=50% of HRR, whichever comes first. The union would then become the bad guys if they didn’t accept.

Escrow is a part of a player’s negotiated salary. Escrow is paid back in full if the League meets projected HRR revenues. It is only withheld to ensure the player percentage paid does not go above 57%. If the league meets projected revenues, witholding escrow is the same as a paycut. When Bettman talks about withholding escrow in a new agreement, he means taking the player’s share below 57%.

I understand that. The escrow amount would be determined based on whatever cap conditions would be negotiated which would affect a work-stoppage year. I’m not disagreeing with the generalities of your comment, but rather clarifying the fact that an escrow is not a pay-cut.

“Fehr’s response has been to tell billionaires how to run their business. It is an idiotic approach as it is his members that will lose anywhere from 5 to 20% of their career earnings per year.
Over 400 players in the league did not experience the last lockout. They are about to find out the hard way that the richer ones don’t blink first.”

I wish I could print this post as a full page in every daily, in every city that has hockey. We all seem to dislike Gary Bettman, because frankly, he’s pretty impossible to like. But the nonsensical approach that Fehr and the players have taken is equally (and possibly moreso) to blame for the total impasse in negotiations.

It seems obvious to me that the players will need to start over with the league’s last offer, and orient themselves to realize that revenue projections won’t be taken as serious data points in a CBA negotiation. That’s the disconnect between the two sides, and the reason why the players’ first offer was dismissed with such derision from the league.

Are you kidding me? Bettman’s first offer was a 14% percent rollback on a deal that he had “won” the first time around, with no changes to the financial structure that he keeps saying is broken. This was a clear sign that he wasn’t there to fix things, he was making a grab for cash – BIG cash. If Bettman had come up with something half reasonable, a dialogue would’ve started.

I don’t give a sh*t about the CBA — I just want to watch hockey. And the fact of the matter is, there is no reason whatsoever that the owners have to lock out the players in order to negotiate the CBA. It’s perfectly normal for a CBA to be negotiated in good faith while work continues. A lockout or strike should be the last resort. The absolute last resort. Not a bargaining strategy.

This is all on the owners. They chose to lock out the players and they didn’t have to. We could be watching hockey right now, while Bettman and Fehr battle it out in the boardroom.

Good point Luke. I am more going though to watch a hockey game and have an ice cold Beer LOL. Not sure if you have been to the John Labatt Centre in London but it is a great place to see OHL hockey. The Knights are a class organization

Zurich, Switzerland – 2021. Remember this year. It is a landmark year for the inauguration of the World Hockey League.
Today, an aging Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the now-defunct NHL, Rene Fasel, President of the IIHF, and Alexander Ovetchkin, who recently replaced Alexander Medvedev as CEO and President of the KHL, signed a historic agreement uniting North American, European and Russian hockey under one banner.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era in professional hockey. It is as definite and well-structured as the last CBA I negotiated back in 2013.” Gary Bettman told a packed house of international journalists.
If you recall, Bettman’s reluctance to agree to the NHLPA’s terms for two years resulted in the complete abolishment of the NHL, with most of the alienated players choosing to play in the European League as well as the ever-expanding KHL.
During that period, with the expansion of the KHL into outreaching areas such as Nuuk, Greenland, Anchorage, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon, the hockey world was turned upside down with Bettman refusing expansion into money-generated markets such as Quebec City or Burlington, Ontario.
“We never saw it coming.” claims Bettman, still sticking to his principals.
Ovechkin, the overwhelming favourite to take over the KHL after Vladislav Tretiak withdrew himself from the list of candidates, was heard saying “None of this had to happen. Just as my deputy-director, Sidney Crosby, said last week ‘Why would we prefer to play half-way around the world?’ and he’s right, it’s all Bettman’s doing. Had he not pushed the larger expansion project after his famous two-year lock-out, pushing for 40 teams in markets like Mexico City, Rio and Providence, Rhode Island, the NHL would still be around today and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
And then, all three executives excited, with Bettman being rolled out in his wheel chair by Mr Fasel.
The first CBA negotiations are to start sometime later this week.
Both sides claim that they will negotiate in good faith, for the sake of the game and world’s greatest fans.

Kaberle plays with Plekanec and Jagr on HC Kladno
here’s the translation from the HC Kladno website :
More great news: the Knights will strengthen Tomas Kaberle!
September 21, 2012 –

Montreal Canadiens defenseman Tomas Kaberle is another strength of the Knights of Kladno. Year-old player who is in the Kladno jersey recently introduced at the last NHL lockout season in 2004 – 2005, boards the first time on Wednesday against Pardubicím.

I am not that confident Ed. reason being is there never should have been a lock out to begin with . Bettman is just using it to strong arm the players. What he doesn’t realize is this time they will do more damage with the fans as there is no reason for a lockout this time.

Remember Peter Gzowski on CBC? His intros set world records for length.

They were like: “Travis Moen is a hockey player with the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL… not that there is any hockey now, given the unwanted – and to my mind, entirely avoidable – work stoppage that is threatening to destroy another season of our glorious game, if it IS indeed OUR game since it is now being run by Americans, as happens with so many of our successful enterprises, not just in sport but in all areas of life, living next door to what is, or at least in recent times WAS the most powerful nation in the world, at least in terms of culture and entertainment, which of course hockey is a part of….. blah blah blah….

Some of the guys on Sportsnet and TSN (radio especially) give it the old:

“So, as a goalie do you think the butterfly style is better then stand-up… because most of the shots you face will be low and your shoulders do a good job of taking away the high shots and you have been successful as BF goalie??”

then the golaie answers: “yah, because most of the shots are low and my shoulders take away the high shots”

With Bobby Orr’s comments yesterday about the NHL being in such great shape with the Kings winning the cup and the Rangers looking strong, makes me think the owners will buckle before losing too many regular season games.

The outdoor game in Detroit and the NBC TV contract are two other big reasons the owners will meet the players at 50% and get the season going.

Some of the huge markets in the U.S. are doing very well and attracting a lot of attention and that momentum could be lost if the lockout drags on.

Like Orr said,I wish we could lock the players and owners in a room with only bread and water until the deal was done.

Regardless, I think a deal will get done in early October. If not, the absolute latest would be sometime in December so that the NHL can go ahead and get organized for the outdoor game on Jan 1st.

Funny, I was thinking that yesterday. Why the hell aren’t they in a room? I mean put together two teams that are willing to talk AND listen, and have them go at it.

And the answer is that Bettman isn’t interested in compromise. And maybe Fehr isn’t that interested either. But I blame Bettman. His rhetoric is all insult and condescension. His goal is not to compromise, his goal is to smugly have his way. I wouldn’t want to sit in a room with the guy so why would the players want to?

Fehr’s response has been to tell billionaires how to run their business. It is an idiotic approach as it is his members that will lose anywhere from 5 to 20% of their career earnings per year.
Over 400 players in the league did not experience the last lockout. They are about to find out the hard way that the richer ones don’t blink first.

But I still say it goes back to Bettman. If he wasn’t so divisive it wouldn’t have gotten to this point in the first place. His third work stoppage, more games lost than any other North American league… Fehr did’t do that, Bettman DID. And the players know this. They may lose but they’re deeply entrenched and it’s going to hurt everyone – and you can thank Bettman for that.

Not just the Winter Classic itself but the TV series 24/7 that kicks off sometime in December. That’s a huge publicity window and revenue earner. My guess is that if the dispute is not resolved in time for these things to happen, the entire season will be cancelled. Hope I’m wrong.

At some point this guy needs to be tested for a psychiatric disorder. I’m serious. He’s dreaming in technicolor – everything’s great, we’re growing, we’re expanding, we want more pie!!

Meanwhile he’s created a malignant fracture in the league between owners and players, he’s spending huge amounts of money propping up teams that are dying, and he gets booed everywhere he goes – his personal popularity is worse than Mit Romney at a Carter family reunion.

What he’s doing is a balls-to-the-walls gamble that he can railroad every situation and win every battle to reach the promised land of NBA or NFL status. It’s not going to happen. It’s NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. This is what’s so disturbing. He’s going to break and lose his mind – and could take the NHL with him.

Lockout – Day Six
The Canadian Auto Workers reached a deal with General Motors last night after coming to an agreement with Ford on Monday. One industry (auto), two owners, with one more to go, Chrysler.
That’s how you get it done. Eliminate the middleman. The Bettman. The Badman. Have Fehr travel around and visit each of the owners. Strike a deal one stop at a time, build momentum and put pressure on the other owners to follow suit.
If only it were that simple …
Practised shadow puppets for an hour. Can do a pretty mean goalmouth scramble now.
There are over 600 unemployed hockey players and just 30 owners. Twenty players, easily, could work shifts tailing each of the owners – simply to keep hockey uppermost in their minds.
Maybe even play street hockey out in front of their estates. “Limo!”
Panic attack! I can’t remember the chorus to The Hockey Song!

Hello out there, we’re on the air
it’s lockout time tonight!
The tension grows,
and Butthead blows,
and Beavis won’t negoti-ite. (poetic license, so there)
The fans don’t jump,
while the NHL and PA bump,
and the media goes insane.
Someone roars:
“NO one scores!”
At the bad old lockout game!

The bad old lockout game
Is the worst game you can name.
And the worst game you can name
Is the bad old lockout game.

Here is a list of players that I have compiled who will be playing in the AHL this year due to the lockout. It pretty well goes without saying that they would all be the NHL this season if it wasn’t for the work stoppage. Lack of experience and Carey Price aside, is this team better than Montreal?

Except for Price, the above mentioned team is twice as good as the Habs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Marlies and the Bulldogs rarely sell out their games. If the lockout is for the entire season, there just might be a good chance to have some HI/Oers take part in a home and home series of games.

the newst rumor is that Scott Gomez is looking for some action in the swiss league with the club in Zug. the problem is that the inscurance for Zug is awfully high because of the ridicoulus salary of Gomez.

That is really funny, was thinking about that last night…..where the hell is Scott Gomez. Havn’t heard his name once in the last few weeks. Most of the team came together to start training…no G-love though.

Rumour has it he is searching for the meaning of life in the mountains of Tibet.

“I think I may have found a way for us to get Griffey and Bonds, and we really won’t have to give up much” -Costanza

Wilde seems to enjoy taking his shots at Gomez, I hope he doesn’t actually expect to get a real interview with Scott. I am not saying Gomez is not deserving of criticism, but if Wilde wants to be taken seriously as sports reporter he should be a little more professional. (just my opinion)

He is somewhat opinionated as a supposedly “neutral” journalist.
However, he says a lot, tongue-in-cheek, and I don’t think he really wishes ill will. I’ve watched him live, and he can be pretty funny.
As for Gomez, I saw an interview between him and Gomez last year, and he was very respectful, and Gomez was his sarcastic self.
So I guess it’s give and take.

Always loved Travis. Remember last year at the start of the season when he was leading the team in scoring and some reporter asked him about being the “sniper”? He said , “Yeah , I bought new pair of hands at a garage sale last summer”! A fine prairie lad!

Is it just me or why does it seem like hockey is having a harder time determining real revenue. I imagine it’s because the other sports have such higher TV revenue which is the main concern along with gate.

You’re right, if it stays as is.
I was impressed watching how quickly Murray climbed in last year’s ranking, and ended up second over-all. Who would have thought that 9 months before the draft?!
A lot can happen in a year.
I read your comment on Subban, and like you said, circumstances are such that a player can develop in one of many ways.

Hey Comm,
Did you get a chance to see central scoutings 2013 watch list? Subban is in the “C” column (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th round)…
Hmm…. A bit undersized granted, but the talent is there. Some even say he’s better than PK was at that age. What do you think?

Its all about the size. If he’s 5’9″ or 5’10” at combine time, teams are gonna be scared. You just don’t see many defencemen at that size really be effective. Even less than forwards.

If he hits a growth spurt he’s good.

Is he better than PK at the same age? He’s probably about the same, maybe slightly better. But here’s the thing with PK… the year after he was drafted something clicked for him. He had a crazy learning curve starting in the 07-08 season and lasted through his two years in the OHL and even his year in Hamilton. Some might say he’s still improving at a crazy rate even today.

The learning curve PK went on is quite extraordinary and there are only a few players in each draft class who do something like that, Its a lot to expect Jordan to go on the same kind of crazy learning curve.

That said, I do think that CS has him a little low. I’d say he’s late 2nd/early 3rd right now.

How come the Canadiens can’t sign Subban? Is it due to the current lock out? I wish there was some enlightenment on this. Anyone have any comments on this stumbling block? I sure hope that Philly doesn’t get him.

I might be saying this out of my butt, but in my theory:
The Habs management will have to wait for the league to settle the agreement between Bettman and the owners/players on any changes. That is, for one, a possible paycut for all players’ contracts. Then afterwards Subban will get a settled contract that would approve him. Otherwise, if he gets signed with X amount before the league’s agreement that consider paycut, Subban won’t get said X amount and play with a salary cut.

I am very happy Moen was re-signed, I think with the addition of Prust, Armstrong and to a less extent Boullion, that Moen will be a more effective player for Habs. He had to feel for years that he was the only guy on the ice that had to “Step-up”. Now that he has support he will be even more effective I feel.

Funny how the sports networks are now showing KHL highlights on their programming. Perhaps those networks (now that they own an NHL team) should flex some muscle at head office and get the NHL at the table with the Players and do some real negotiating.

We also have to talk to guys while they’re still here to talk…
Dave StubbsHockey Inside/Out
Sports Columnist/Feature Writer, Montreal Gazette
• On Twitter: @Dave_Stubbs
• Email: dstubbs@montrealgazette.com

During the Molson Centre tour at the HIO summit, the year Gomez arrived, there was a chat session among the summiteers and I shouted out something about getting rid of some people whose names start with G. It was not popular at the time. In hindsight… I could’ve run for mayor on that ticket.